The Use Of Protected Title In Pharmacy

Pharmacy title

There is a general confusion on the use of titles around the world. Titles differ from one country to the other. Qualifications for a title may not be the same from one country to another. This is really having negative effects on the qualifications of those who are qualified to bear some of these titles.
Every undergraduate degree has a title. These titles can be termed protected if it was agitated for by an association or a regulatory body. There are situations whereby a graduate of a degree is automatically entitled to the title. In some other cases, there is the need for registration with the law of the country. This way, people who do not study the course cannot use the title, which will be against the law.

A musicologist is a title for anyone with a degree in music. This is different from a musician that does not require a degree. Others are pharmacologists, anatomists etc. who study these respective courses.
In the health sector, regulators have at least one protected title. In other cases, the title could be more than one. This prevents bogus professionals from using a variant of the title. Undue usage of a protected title can lead to action against the abuser. Abusers include those whose names have been removed from the registrar.
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However, there are titles not protected from any profession such as doctor and nurse. That is why other professions using it today. The title Dr. is use by many herbal medicine dealers today. The protected title is Doctor of Medicine or Doctor of Pharmacy.
Around the world, different profession has different titles. However, there are controversies surrounding how to use these titles. For example, an engineer in some countries does not add a prefix or suffix title to his name. In other cases, the abbreviation approved vary from country to country. Let us look at some examples.

Professional Titles

In some countries, the title 'Engineer' is a protected title for anyone with an engineering degree. However, some countries do not give any right to the holders to use an abbreviated form of it as a prefix or suffix. In others, eng, ing, ir, engr, etc is an accepted form of abbreviation as prefix or suffix.
In the United States of America (U.S.A), it is not uncommon for attorneys to use attorney ABC as a prefix although there is no such official prefix approved.
Doctor of medicine abbreviated as MuDr is used as a prefix with a name. In addition, Dr. can be used as a prefix in most countries. PhD is a suffix for doctoral study program or a prefix when the abbreviation is Dr. Now let us look at titles for pharmacy.

Pharmacy Titles

According to Jeremy Holmes at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s chief executive and registrar, defined a protected title as a contract made between the state and the profession. The state gives exclusive right to use certain titles and to perform certain roles. According to him, the state can rest assured that anyone using those titles or performing those roles would be appropriately trained and up to date so that quality can rest assured. In this way, it protects the public from the harm that could have been caused by people practicing a profession, when they are not qualified.
Pharmacy titles in the United Kingdom (U.K) include pharmacy, pharmaceutical chemist, pharmacist, registered pharmacist, chemist and druggist, druggist. Not every pharmacist can use these titles. For example, only those pharmacists conducting retail pharmacy use druggist.
Pharmacist with a pharm. d. degree has titles of doctor of pharmacy. The abbreviation of doctor of pharmacy has been approved which is doctor, further abbreviated to Dr., which is used as a prefix to a name. However, B. Pharm degree holders are pharmacist. There is a suffix for b. Pharm.
In Indian, there's a yet to be approved move for B. Pharm degree holders to use a prefix to their names.  A proposed name by the Indian Pharmacist regulatory body was R.ph or B.Ph. This was after their government recognised their Pharm. D. programme.
Read Also: The Similarities And Differences Between Doctor Of Pharmacy And Medical Doctor
Is there an official title abbreviation for B. Pharm. in Nigeria? The answer is not clear since the abbreviation 'pharm' as a prefix to a name has taken the centre stage used by all. One can simply conclude that it is the same in the case of attorney mentioned above.
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